If you’re an Oregon lawyer, the best legal research tools are only a mouse-click away on the OSB website. Best of all, they’re free thanks to the revamped BarBooks platform.

From the Member Login link on the OSB home page, select Enter BarBooks, and choose Explore. In addition to the familiar OSB Legal Publications – 44 books that cover everything from Administering Oregon Estates to Worker’s Compensation – you will also find:

Other OSB Publications

Disciplinary Board Reporter (1998 – 2015)

Oregon Formal Ethics Opinions (2016 rev.)

Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct Annotated (2016 edition)

Oregon Legislation Highlights (2005 – 2016)

UPL Advisory Opinions (2013-2014)

OSB Seminar Handbooks

A whopping 132 handbooks from OSB CLEs. Here are just a few of the topics covered:

Advanced Estate Planning

Advanced Topics in Nonprofit Law

Bankruptcy Basics: The ABCs of Filing Chapter 13

Basic Estate Planning and Administration

Broadbrush Taxation

Business Law

Constitutional Law

Defending DUII Cases in Oregon

Deposition Techniques and Strategy with David Markowitz

Drafting Family Law Documents

Elder Law

Evolving Issues of Labor and Employment Law in the Modern Workplace

Fundamentals of Oregon Civil Trial Procedure

Intellectual Property Review

Legal Ethics—Best Practices

Litigation Institute and Retreat

Northwest Bankruptcy Institute

Real Estate and Land Use Fall Forum

Technology Law

Click the nifty download button to save any of these publications or handbooks to your desktop.

Don’t Forget About Fastcase

Trust Accounting and Practice Management

While logged into BarBooks, you can also search the Oregon Statutory Time Limitations Handbook from the Professional Liability Fund (PLF). BUT, the best place to download PLF handbooks is still the PLF website, where you have four to choose from – all available at no cost to Oregon lawyers:

A Guide to Setting Up and Running Your Law Office

A Guide to Setting Up and Using Your Lawyer Trust Account

Oregon Statutory Time Limitations Handbook

Planning Ahead: A Guide to Protecting Your Clients’ Interests in the Event of Your Disability or Death

When Your Convenience Determines How You Communicate

Choosing a communication medium that is most convenient for you is understandable. Odds are you’re busy, maybe overwhelmed. You have information to convey and want to pass it along to the client quickly and easily. More likely than not, you’ll fire off an email, maybe a text, or post a document and notify the client to login to your secure client portal.

This is perfectly fine if the information you have to convey is cut and dried: not controversial, unexpected, upsetting, or likely to provoke a series of questions.

For best results, prime clients at the first client meeting. Let them know to expect emails, texts, etc. when you have routine information to convey.

When Client Convenience Rules Communication

Some might argue this should be the gold standard 100% of the time: choose the communication method the client prefers or finds most convenient.

While I understand the spirit behind this point of view, it ignores some important realities. Consider this typical scenario: Client sends you a question by email or text, but is unclear in what she is asking or leaves out key details. In the name of letting the client control the means of communication, you can:

Begin an inefficient exchange of messages in an attempt to clarify the question.

Spend an inordinate amount of time “issue spotting,” then answer every conceivable variation of the client’s real question.

Have I made this mistake? Yes, indeed. But the goal here is to do better. Neither of these choices is a good way to go.

Client convenience/preference can rule when you have straightforward information to convey. [Spot a theme here?]

If the client is being murky, don’t text or email. Pick up the phone. You’ll get to bottom of the real question far more quickly. Send back a quick message: “Let me call you to discuss this. Is 2:00 p.m. a good time?”

Purposely Choosing a Communication Method that is Inconvenient for the Client

If we’re being truthful, most lawyers have done this at one time or the other. You leave a voicemail at home because you know the client is at work. You send an email late at night when the client is likely to be sleeping. You mail a letter instead of picking up the phone to talk.

Avoidance, much?

If you occasionally choose a means of communication that avoids contact with your clients, don’t worry about it. You might legitimately go this route to simply get something done. [Your convenience is driving how you communicate.]

But if you find yourself avoiding clients (plural) repeatedly (chronically), stop and reflect. Most lawyers who choose an “avoidance” means of communication are doing it because:

They anticipate the client will be unhappy about whatever information it is they have to convey – or –

The client is already unhappy [which could be reasonable or unreasonable]

Chronic avoidance can become chronic procrastination, which is a no-win for everyone. Lawyers who repeatedly procrastinate are anxious, stressed, and sometimes depressed. They find it impossible to break the self-perpetuating cycle of avoidance: as clients become more and more unhappy because the lawyer isn’t communicating, the lawyer retreats even more – not checking email, not opening postal mail, allowing voicemail to fill up, not reading texts.

Talk about communication at your initial client meeting. Let the client know what to expect and set the tone.

My goal is to keep you informed at all times during your case. I will email (upload) routine updates and documents.

If you have a question, feel free to call (text, or email) me. I set aside (mornings) (afternoons) to return calls and messages.

If the answer to your question is complicated, or if I need more information to give you an answer, I may ask to set up a telephone or video conference.

I like to meet with clients in person to (talk about settlement offers, prepare for deposition, prepare for trial, etc.) If you want to meet in person, feel free to (call my assistant or me) any time to set up an appointment.

You are welcome to drop off documents (any time, after 1:00 p.m.). If you want to talk (leave me a note or speak to my assistant so we can schedule a time to meet).

Consider the information you need to convey and remember your goal in communicating: you’re trying to build and support a better client relationship.

Convey bad news in person, by video conference, or over the phone.

Discussing something complicated? Use the same approach.

Is your client prone to anxiety? Do you anticipate the client will have a host of questions? Ditto on the approach.

Potential Legal Malpractice

If you’re an Oregon lawyer, call the Professional Liability Fund at 1-800-452-1639 and ask to speak to an on-call claims attorney in any of the following circumstances:

WordRake, one of our newest offerings, is editing and proofreading software geared to the legal profession:

WordRake tightens, tones, and clarifies your writing. Just click the “rake” button and watch the in-line editor ripple through your document, suggesting edits to remove clutter and improve unclear phrasing, just like a live editor. Give your first drafts the polish of a second or third draft, quickly and painlessly.

Zama mines over 70,000 news, information, and social media sources so you don’t have to. Easily find the information to help grow your business and strengthen client relationships. Organizations that use Zama include Oregon law firms Ball Janik LLP and Karnopp Petersen LLP.

With an RSS feed you can subscribe to alerts and receive new posts automatically in your browser or e-mail inbox without the need to login or monitor the PLF website. Examples of recent post topics include:

Are you eCourt Ready?

Temporary eFiling Restrictions Lifted

UTCR 21.140 Amended Out-of-Cycle

Office Productivity in the Cloud: Is Office 365 Right for You?

eCourt Service Status – Temporary eFiling Restrictions

eCourt Mandatory effective December 1, 2014

You can also follow the Professional Liability Fund on social media, including: